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The article focuses on the role of eyes as indications of life based on a study published in a 2010 issue of the periodical "Psychological Science." Researchers emphasize that the ability to determine whether a face is that of a living person or an animate object is key to the survival of human beings. A sequence of images of human and doll faces was used in the study. Student volunteers reportedly prefer to look at the eyes of the images to determine a living face.

The article discusses a study on the cooperative skills of Asian elephants in Thailand. The researchers modified a classic experiment administered to chimpanzees in the 1930s, which requires two animals work together to earn a treat. KarenMcComb, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Sussex in Great Britain, claims that the findings are consistent with observations in Africa where elephants work together to lift a fallen companion with their tusks. Other animals that show cognitive abilities include chimpanzees, hyenas and rooks.

The article discusses research by David Ainley and colleagues on why penguins fear the dark. Previous researchers attribute the penguin's apprehension after dark to its poor nighttime visual acuity. However, the researchers discovered that penguins have good nighttime eyesight, but prefer to be out of the water at night to avoid being eaten by leopard seals or killer whales.

The article discusses how dogs trained to sniff out scat helped researchers solve a mystery in western Canada of what is driving woodland caribou to the edge of extinction. The dogs were able to turn up enough scat to show that there are almost as twice as many caribou than reported earlier. It was conservation biologist Samuel Wasser used detection dogs in his conservation studies. The dogs were able to identify 1,914 caribous, 1,175 moose and 327 wolf scat samples. It describes the use of dogs as brilliant in terms of efficiency and expediency.

The article focuses on the world's rarest cetaceans, known as the pygmy killer whale or Feresa attenuata, and its resemblance to killer whale or Orcinus orca as examined by Japanese researcher Munesato Yamada. It presents the relation to Delphinidae family as reported by Robin Baird, biologist at the Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington. It states the behavior and protection of population of pygmy killer whale in Hawaii as suggested by Robert Brownell, cetacean expert with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, California.

The article discusses the results of a study of the African cichlid fish, Pelvicachromis taeniatus, which provides evidence that the size of a particular female ornament influences the mating decision of the male fish.

The article discusses research on the death of several bottlenose dolphins following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010. Researchers found that more than one in five dolphins that died in the Deepwater Horizon spill area and time frame had bacterial pneumonia. Lead pathologist of the research said that the lung lesions found on the dolphins were the most severe she has examined in 13 years.

The article focuses on a study which revealed the distinctive voices of the North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis).

The article discusses an analysis of more than 50,000 observations of social interactions among spotted hyenas in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve over 20 years which indicated that individual traits, including the hyena's sex and social rank, have a role in the animals' social dynamics.

The article focuses on the increasing number of dolphins being slaughtered in Solomon Island wherein villagers get the dolphins' teeth as payment for a bride. It reports that in 2013, there were 1500 pantropical spotted dolphins, 159 spinner dolphins, and 15 bottlenose dolphins killed by hunters particularly in the island of Malaita. The effort of the Earth Island Institute, an environmental organization in San Francisco, California, to stop hunters from killing dolphins is mentioned.

The article reports that researchers are looking into how marmoset communication can provide a better understanding of the evolution of language.

The article offers information on the conservation success of the humpback whales. Topics include the whales' removal from the federal endangered species list in the U.S., the continuous monitoring of the species under the Marne Mammal Protection Act, and the endangered status of the Arabian Sea and Cape Verde Islands humpback whales. It also mentions the 2010 review of humpback whales of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The article discusses a plan that is submitted to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) where Japanese scientists proposed the annual killing of 333 minke whales for 12 years to satisfy the objectives of the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR). Topics covered include the reduction of the original number of whales killed every year in the Antarctic Ocean, investigation of the role of whales in the ecosystem and recommendation of the IWC panel for ICR to adopt a non-lethal research method.

The article discusses a study conducted at New York University School of Medicine which examined the role of oxytocin, a hormone linked to trust and maternal bonding, in fostering maternal behavior in mice. Topics covered include the response of female mice to the distress calls of baby mice, the discovery of oxytocin receptors and oxytocin producing neurons in both sides of the brain's auditory cortex, and the importance of left auditory cortex in the retrieval behavior of maternal mice.

The article discusses research being done on the attention given by rats to the emotional expressions of their fellows that are in pain. It references a study by Satoshi Nakashima and colleagues published online in "Royal Society Open Science." Topics covered include the development of pain grimace scales for rats, the photography taken on rats while giving them a mild electrical foot shock and the preference shown on the room with the gallery of neutral rat images.

The article discusses a study concerning the vocal learning skills of baby Egyptian fruit bats in which a group of isolated pups produced only isolation calls and babbling sounds only to soon learn of their mother's mouselike squeak and chatter after being united with other families of bats.

The article offers an explanation on how Yellowstone National Park was and was not changed by wolves. In 1995 biologists at Yellowstone set radio collars on six wolves and observed them. As of March 2015, there are a total of 95 wolves in 11 packs, hunting elk, deer and bison. It notes that scientists are cautious on attributing the changes in the park solely to the wolves.

The article reports on the death of an endangered female gray wolf at the Grand Canyon, Arizona in 2014 and mentions that she was identified as 914F by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

The article reports on a study involving chimpanzees, their collection of sounds and calls for their favorite foods, and their newly discovered designation for apple which shows their ability to add to their repertoire from other chimps.

The article talks about the social wasp, Liostenogaster flavolineata, and how they are apparently capable of using facial recognition in the defense of their nests by being able to distinguish friend from foe.

The article discusses a study by behavioral ecologist Isaac Planas-Sitjá and colleagues, published online in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society B" that investigated the presence of personalities among cockroaches. Topics include the tracking method and controlled environments used, the display of shy and bold personalities by cockroaches, and the collective dynamic and group conformity among such insects.

The article discusses findings by researchers that the ibises precisely matched the amount of time spent in the lead and trailing positions regardless of their genetic relationship indicating a convincing example of reciprocal altruism in animals.

The article offers information about the amplification of low-frequency sounds by fin whales using their skulls that was discovered by PLOS ONE researchers through a three-dimensional rendition of the animal's skull.

The article discusses a study published online in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society B" on January 20, 2015 which suggested that female cougars expend more energy hunting in urban areas and spent less time feeding on each carcass.

The author discussed the regional variation in the pattern of striping on plains zebras and suggestions from scientists who quantified the characteristics of stripes on zebras of a correlation between temperature and striping.

The author discusses a new rule issued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) expanding the range within which Mexican gray wolves can legally roam and listing them as an endangered subspecies under Endangered Species Act (ESA). Topics discussed include plans of conservationists to challenge the rule in court claiming that revisions will not bring the endangered species back and concerns of the Center for Biological Diversity over the goal of establishing a population of 300 to 325 animals.

The article discusses research on the larger brains of the wild colonies of acacia ants. It references a study published in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences." Topics covered include the possible causes of specialized brains, the division of labor observed in larger colonies and the increase in brain regions concerned with learning and memory as the colony size increased.

The article reports on the mapping of the bowhead whale's genome in an effort to discover reasons for the animal's longevity, according to a study published online on January 5, 2014 in "Cell Reports."

The article reports on a ruling released by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on December 19, 2014 which forbids wolf hunting and trapping in Great Lakes, Minnesota under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). Topics discussed include the removal of the federal protections for the wolves by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in 2012 and a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2013 regarding the removal of the federal protections of the wolves.

The article discusses the construction of a protected habitat in Alaska for Arctic ringed seals, proposed by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Topics explored include the positive acknowledgement of the proposal by the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona despite the criticism it received from U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, the research into the habitat needs of the said seals, and the impact of climate change on the Arctic sea ice.

The article discusses research which investigated the lack of effectiveness of retaliatory strategies to address wolf predation on livestock.

The article discusses research on the possible hemispheric bias of dogs when listening to human sounds. Topics include an explanation of hemispheric bias among humans who are listening, details of the methods used in the research with dogs and the findings of the study reported in the journal "Current Biology."

The article discusses a research study published in the November 2014 online issue of the journal "Functional Ecology" which found that tundra-taiga wolves from the hunted population had much higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

The article discusses the highlights of a meeting of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, held in Quito, Ecuador from November 3-9, 2014, in which delegates agreed to extend protection to 31 migratory species. Issues addressed at the meeting include the capture of marine mammals. Other highlights are the approval of a resolution calling for phrasing out lead shot when hunting birds and adoption of guidelines for deploying renewable energy technologies.

The article discusses a study published online in the journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society B" on November 11, 2014, which found that male Scandinavian brown bears are likely to kill baby bears during hunting season.

The article discusses a study on the sonar interference exhibited by the Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) to avoid food competition. Biologist Aaron Corcoran and William Conner from Wake Forest University in North Carolina discovered the animals produced a jamming call that obstructed the signals causing confusion to other bats. An overview of the project reported online in the journal Science is also presented.

The article reports on a study on the behavior of female ants and the reason why they fight for foreign sperms that was published in the journal "Proceedings of the Royal Society B" in 2014. It discusses a series of controlled experiments performed by the scientists to conclude that male ants do not realize that they made a wrong choice of mating with the wrong queen until they start to copulate and a mad mating season among ants that happens once a year after the summer monsoon rains.

The article reports on the findings of a study by U.S. researchers that the flutelike songs of the male hermit thrush or Catharus guttatus employ the same mathematical principles that underlie many Western and non-Western musical scales. Topics discussed include the similarities of the songs containing notes made by the bird with a harmonic series based on the findings and an indication that human music is not purely determined by cultural practices but also by biology.

The article offers information on small birds called fairy-wrens that go through embryonic learning prior to hatching.

The article reports on the frenzy swimming phenomenon of baby sea turtles which are tracked by acoustic tags.

The article discusses the findings of research which appeared in the October 2014 issue of "The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America," revealing orcas' capability of vocal learning.

The article reports on the study conducted by a team of researchers led by University of Auckland evolutionary biologist Russell Gray about the histories of the Austronesian and Proto-Indo-European languages and peoples.

The article reports on the study which examines the impact of social complexity on the brain size of parrots.

The article reflects on the scientific study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" which shows parental care in Nicrophorus burying beetles using fossils dating to 165 million years ago from Inner Mongolia in China.

The article reflects on the study published in the September 2014 issue of the journal "Zoomorphology" conducted by a team of scientists in Brazil showing 14 spleens, the organ for filtering blood, in some cetaceans, the group comprising whales and dolphins.

The article focuses on the findings of the data from the American Kennel Club (AKC) which shows that films can increase the popularity of a dog's breed for up to 10 years. The decline on the influence of films in the existing times because of increased competition from television is mentioned. It cites several popular films about dogs which include "Lassie Come Home" and "The Shaggy Dog."

The article focuses on the claim of scientists on the gradual recovery of California blue whales or Balaenoptera musculus from extinction as their population increases in the Antarctic.

The article discusses the ability of Figaro, a Goffin's cockatoo (Cacatua goffini) housed at a research laboratory in Austria, to make stick tools from the wooden beams of his aviary, a trait that Indonesian parrots are not known of. It describes the experiments set up by scientists to find out if Figaro's fellow cockatoos can learn by watching his methods, as reported online on September 2, 2014 in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society B."

The article provides information on the results of a study conducted by a group of scientists which show that dogs distinguish between the barks of dogs they are familiar with and the barks of strangers and conclude that dogs glean detailed information from each other's barks.

The article discusses a study by disease ecologist Vanessa Ezenwa which showed a complete cyclical picture where behavior modified an animal's risk of acquiring a parasite and how the infection in turn modified the animal's behavior.